Yesterday marked the 128th anniversary of Shrila Prabhupada's divine appearance, and the B.L.I.S.S devotees celebrated by writing and
reciting offerings to him.
His Grace Purujit Dasa:
Lord Krishna takes great pleasure in being addressed by names connected to his devotees such as Yasodanandana (the pleasure of Mother Yasoda), Devaki nandana (the pleasure of Mother Devaki) or Nandanandana (the pleasure of Nanda Maharaja). This means that glorification of Krishna's devotees is as good as glorifying Krishna Himself. This is confirmed in the Adi Purana, where Krishna says: "One who is My devotee is not My devotee. Only one who is a devotee of My devotee is My real devotee." No one can approach the Lord directly. Krishna is unattainable unless we approach Him through the mercy of His devotees. For this reason the first step in the practise of Krishna consciousnes is to approach a bona fide spiritual master and render service to him.
As indicated in the Bhagavad-gita, without understanding Lord Krishna's transcendental nature, the mystery behind his birth and activities, it is not posible to transcend the material realm and achieve liberation by returing back to Godhead. The same can be applied to his pure devotees and especially the spiritual master. In the Shrimad Bhagavatam (11.17.27) it is stated by the Lord Himself:
acaryam mam vijaniyan
navamanyeta karhicit
na martya-buddhyasuyeta
sarva-deva-mayo guruh
"One should know the acarya as Myself and never disrespect him in any way. One should not envy him, thinking him an ordinary man, for he is the representative of all the demigods."
Shrila Prabhupada comments on this sloka as follows: "Influenced by an envious temperament and dissatisfied because of an attitude of sense gratification, mundaners criticize a real acarya. In fact, however, a bona fide acarya is nondifferent from the Personality of Godhead, and therefore to envy such an acarya is to envy the Personality of Godhead Himself. This will produce an effect subversive of transcendental realization."
(Adi 1.46)
Shrila Prabhupada defines envy as:
We should understand jealousy, what is jealousy. Jealousy means that you are rightful owner of something; I won't allow you to take it. This is jealousy. This is jealousy. Jealousy, try to understand. Suppose you are rightful owner of something, and I am trying that "You don't own it. I shall own it. Or somebody own it. I shall not allow it." This is jealousy.
(Shrila Prabhupada from Bhagavad-gita lecture, 1.1 London, July 7, 1973)
The root of our material existence is the envy towards the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So long the living entity envies the Lord's supreme position he must continuously take birth in this material world and undergo material suffering. This original envy towards the Lord covers his eyes and he is unable to understand the Lord's true nature, but instead sees Him as an ordinary man exemplifying the saying: Blind man thinks everyone else is blind.
In the same way, so long one is envious of the spiritual master and his superior position, one cannot glorify him in a pure way. Actually such unauthorized materially tinged so-called glorification becomes a type of blasphemy. The spiritual master due to being situated in knowledge is always superior to the disciple, who must accept his authority without blind challenge and with utmost heartfelt respect. If one does not have faith in the spiritual master's supreme position, he should not accept the spiritual master falsely simply for name and fame.
The best example of a guru-disciple relationship is shown in the case of Krishna and Arjuna on the Battlefield of Kuruksetra where the Lord explained the sacred teachings of the Bhagavad-gita. Shrila Prabhupada notes in this connection:
If Arjuna is on the same level with Krishna, and Krishna is not superior to Arjuna, then their relationship of instructor and instructed becomes meaningless. If both of them are deluded by the illusory energy (maya), then there is no need of one being the instructor and the other the instructed. Such instruction would be useless because, in the clutches of maya, no one can be an authoritative instructor.
(Bg 2.13)
Srila Prabhupada further explains this point in a letter to his disciples:
It is the injunction of the Vedas that the Spiritual Master should not be treated as ordinary man even if sometimes the Spiritual Master behaves like ordinary man. It is the duty of the disciple to accept Him as Superhuman Man. In the beginning of your letter your comparison of the soldier and commander is very appropriate. We are on the battlefield of Kuruksetra -- one side Maya, the other side Krishna. So the regulative principles of a battlefield, namely to abide by the order of the commander, must be followed. Otherwise it is impossible to direct the fighting capacity of the soldiers and thus defeat the opposing elements.
(Letter to: Brahmananda , Gargamuni -- Los Angeles 31 July, 1970)
The transcendental nature of the spiritual master can be explained as follows. The conditioned souls receive various types of material bodies according to their material desires, but since a pure devotee is always absorbed in the thoughts of Krishna, there is no question of him being entangled in such material cycle, therefore a pure devotee does not undergo rebirths as conditioned souls in this material world. Shrila Prabhupada describes the nature of a pure devotee:
“A pure devotee of the Lord does not live on any planet of the material sky, nor does he feel any contact with the material elements. His so-called material body does not exist, being surcharged with the spiritual current of the Lord’s identical interest, and thus he is permanently freed from all contaminations of the sum total of the mahat-tattva.”
(S.B. 1.13.55)
“Therefore, a devotee who engages in the service of the Supreme Lord, and who constantly thinks of Him, should never be considered to have a material body. It is, therefore, enjoined: gurusu naramati – One should stop thinking of the spiritual master as an ordinary human being with a material body.'”
(S.B. 8.3.2)
To say that the spiritual master died, struggled, was tired, suffered diseases, hunger, thirst, sadness, material distress, or have been betrayed, poisoned, cheated is a material conception of the spiritual master and should be avoided as it stems from the envy to the spiritual master. The spiritual master is always situated in transcendence and all activities seemingly appearing as material should be understood as transcendental lilas (pastimes). This is the proper authorized method of the acharya glorification.
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